I know, I know…it’s early November. I have no business posting anything about summer knee-deep in autumn.
Migliorelli had some beautiful plum tomatoes for about $1.60 a pound. I bought three or four pounds fully intending to make some of Marcella’s tomato sauce later in the week but this post on Mouthfulsfood gave me other ideas.
Tomato risotto
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Slow-roasted tomatoes are quite easily, one of the cheapest ways to elevate a dish from mundane to sublime. Take two baskets of cherry tomatoes, halve them, arrange in a roasting pan or cookie sheet, sprinkle each with a tiny bit of kosher salt and olive oil, then roast at 175 F to 200 F for 3 hours. You can do this with regular supermarket tomatoes or seasonal produce from the farmer’s market. The best time to cook them this way is now when tomatoes are at their most flavorful. Roast two or three cookie sheets’ worth of tomatoes, use as desired and freeze or can the rest. Prepared in this manner, they provide a taste of summer while we’re in the throes of winter.
I love slow-roasted tomatoes as a garnish to roast fish or chicken, or as a salad ingredient, or passed through a food mill and transformed into pasta sauce. A friend swears by them in omelettes with smoked salmon and chevre. Here, I’ve paired them with corn fritters lightly seasoned with a hint of marjoram, an herb that belongs to the mint family but actually boasts a mild, oregano-like flavor.
Corn fritters with slow-roasted tomatoes and fromage blanc
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For the corn fritters:
1 cup fresh corn kernels (about 2 ears of corn)
3 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon fresh marjoram, chopped
pinch of kosher salt
vegetable oil, for frying
Crush corn kernels with a strong fork or a potato masher. Combine corn, marjoram, flour, egg and salt. Stir well to blend.
Pour oil into a skillet and place over medium-high heat. Form the fritters by dropping the batter in 1-tablespoon portions into the pan, then fry the fritters until golden brown, about 2 minutes on each side. Cook the fritters in batches, adding more oil to the pan as necessary. Drain on paper towels. Serve with a few spoonfuls slow-roasted tomatoes and a dollop of fromage blanc. If you don’t have any fromage blanc, substitute low-fat sour cream.
This will be my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Graziana from Erbe in Cucina (Cooking with Herbs).
Gnocchi has a permanent place in my repertoire. On average, I have it once or twice every six weeks. I usually make ricotta gnocchi because it’s lighter and lends itself to more dishes than the usual potato kind. There are variants made with chestnuts, semolina and corn meal but these are less-known, not to mention I’m unfamiliar with a couple of them.
Ricotta gnocchi with corn and heirloom tomatoes
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Recipe and demo after the jump.
This is my favorite time of year, foodwise. So many wonderful things are available at the market this time of year. The thin, light meals of summer give way to heartier fare that autumn demands. Yet, there is still time to savor the fruits of late summer before the first chill makes its presence felt.
Heirloom tomato and stone fruit salad
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For this salad, choose a variety of tomatoes and pair them with plums and peaches. Apricots and nectarines are also good choices, if available. Season lightly with sea salt or fleur de sel; dress with lime juice, mint and extra-virgin olive oil and serve at once.
Slow cooking concentrates the flavor of late-summer tomatoes so that no other seasonings, not even salt, are needed in the final product.
Preheat the oven to 200 F.
Slice plum tomatoes in half and arrange them, cut side up, in a Pyrex roasting dish or cookie sheet. Lightly sprinkle each with a mixture of kosher salt and cracked black pepper. You can if you wish, add dried herbs like thyme, oregano or basil. Go easy on them, however. Drizzle each tomato half with 1 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil.
Roast the tomatoes for 8 to 10 hours. When done, use as desired in pasta, omelettes, as a tomato sauce or as confit.
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The danger with this dish is that you’ll make too few, as I did. I solved that problem by whipping up a batch of pasta. Next time — and there will be a next time, probably next weekend — I’ll make triple this recipe and freeze the whole thing so I can enjoy them during the winter.
Penne with slow-roasted plum tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, tomato oil and herbs
Heirloom tomato and mint salsa
As far as salsas go, this one is pretty basic. 1 cucumber, diced; 3 heirloom tomatoes, diced; 1/2 red onion, finely chopped; juice of half a lime; pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper; 4 tablespoons olive oil; handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley and mint. Toss to combine. Can be made up to an hour prior to service.
Fried eggs, sunnyside-up, with heirloom tomato and mint salsa, served over crispy sourdough toast
This is one of my favorite ways to eat breakfast. It’s also relatively quick. This took about 20 minutes from start to finish (including making the salsa). Can’t beat that. I haven’t included a recipe because it’s so elemental that almost anyone can make it.
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You can definitely tell that autumn is on the threshold.
There’s a chill in the air; carpe diem while you can.
Yellow plum tomatoes
Golden nugget potatoes
Apples
Ricotta salata isn’t the same thing as ricotta cheese. It’s a sheep’s milk cheese; the curds and whey are pressed and dried before the cheese is aged. The result is a cheese with a slightly spongy texture and an intense creamy flavor, rather like a dry Italian feta. Use as you would feta cheese. Just remember that feta cheese is aged in brine, therefore although both cheeses are salty, feta usually has a wetter texture and crumbles more easily.
Watermelon and red onion salad with ricotta salata
seedless watermelon, cubed
2 T. ricotta salata, crumbled
chopped scallions (light green and white part only)
red onion or Vidalia onion, thinly sliced
2 T. reserved watermelon juice
2 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. lime juice
kosher salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
chopped parsley
Combine watermlon, ricotta salata, onion and scallions. Toss gently. Whisk dressing and spoon over salad. Serve immediately.
Although tomatoes are available year-round at farmers’ markets here in New York City, they don’t really come into their own until this time of year. In-season tomatoes usually arrive at our local Greenmarkets towards the end of June or early July, while out-of-season tomatoes are grown via hydroponics and sold at double their usual price. At least two harvests will occur during tomato season which ends sometime in late October or early November when the first frosts of autumn make their appearance.
The really flavorful ones are only around for four months out of the year so it makes sense to take advantage of their availability as much as possible.
For tonight’s dinner, a trout fillet was brushed with an herb rub and baked with sliced heirloom tomatoes inside corn husks, then paired with a coconut and almond pilaf. Some of the baked tomatoes went into a spiced peach salsa that doubled as a garnish.
Recipe and pix after the jump.
Back before Mario Batali became a big star on The Food Network, he owned a restaurant named Po, located on Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village. One of Chef Batali’s signature offerings was white bean bruschetta — cannellini beans kissed with a touch of garlic, balsamic vinegar and herbs and spooned atop hunks of toasted Italian bread. I remember having dinner there shortly after my 25th birthday. It was the first time I had had bruschetta, and it was a taste revelation.
According to Wikipedia, bruschetta is a food the origin of which dates to at least the 15th century from central Italy. It consists of grilled bread rubbed with garlic and topped with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Variations may include toppings of spicy red pepper, tomato, vegetables, beans, cured meat, and/or cheese. Bruschetta is usually served as a snack or appetizer.
One of the more familiar and popular recipes involves tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and olive oil. For myself, I prefer tomatoes, salt, pepper, some kind of herb (mint, tarragon, basil or even celery leaves), some acid (a teaspoon or two of white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar or lemon juice), shallots or Vidalia onion and good quality extra-virgin olive oil. No cheese — I feel it throws off the balance of the dish. Ditto for garlic.
One other thing — when you make bruschetta, you should strive to use the best and freshest ingredients possible. You’ll definitely taste the difference in the end.
Heirloom tomato bruschetta
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3 small to medium ripe heirloom tomatoes, chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
pinch of kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon mint, cut into a chiffonade (1)
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Italian bread or sourdough bread, sliced
In a bowl, combine all ingredients except the bread. Mix well.
Toast the bread until lightly golden. Spoon the tomato mixture atop the toast and serve immediately.
(1) — Chiffonade is a cooking technique in which herbs or leafy green vegetables are cut into long, thin strips. This is generally accomplished by stacking leaves, rolling them tightly, then cutting across the rolled leaves with a sharp knife, producing fine ribbons.
Recipe and demo for the oyster stew after the jump.
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